A MODEL FOR THE MACRO- AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF A YIPUNU-FRENCH SCHOOL DICTIONARY
Ludwine Mabika Mbokou
Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Literature (Lexicography) at the University of
Stellenbosch
Promoter: Prof. R.H. Gouws
Declaration
I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this dissertation is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree
Signature………..
SUMMARY
In the field of the science of language, dictionaries have always been part of a standardisation process. They are also part of the expansion, the development and the promotion of languages in societies. On the other hand, the education system is an important partner for both foreign language teaching and the development of local languages in countries with a weak written tradition like Gabon. It is a strong platform for the production of dictionaries because it includes the diffusion and the application of school programmes and school manuals.
Therefore, it is relevant for the Gabonese population to rely on a well-established lexicographic tradition to preserve and promote their local languages. Introducing dictionaries in the field of education can ensure this. Dictionaries have to be compiled in the Gabonese languages for Gabonese pupils learning those languages. Because each culture encourages the development of dictionaries suitable to particular difficulties, dictionaries compiled in Gabonese languages have to be made according to the Gabonese situation.
The present dissertation will present a model for a bilingual school dictionary involving Yipunu, one of the Gabonese languages, and French. The aim will be to develop a model, based on metalexicographical principles, applicable to the Gabonese context. In this model the French section of the dictionary will not be active. The frame structure required in the compilation of such a model will contain a front matter, a back matter and a central list. Even if there are two treated languages, the dominant language in this dictionary will be Yipunu. French will appear only as translation equivalents. And for the convenience of the target users, the model will describe the content of a polyfunctional monodirectional bilingual Yipunu/French dictionary for Yipunu learners.
OPSOMING
Op die gebied van die taalwetenskap het woordeboeke nog altyd deel uitgemaak van die standaardiseringsproses. Woordeboeke vorm ook deel van die uitbreiding, ontwikkeling en bevordering van taal in gemeenskappe. ’n Land se onderwysstelsel speel ook ’n belangrike rol in die onderring van vreemde tale, asook in die ontwikkeling van inheemse tale in lande soos Gaboen met ’n swak ontwikkedde skriftelike tradisie. Omdat onderwys die verspreiding en gebruik van skoolprogramme en -handleidings behels, verskaf dit ’n stewige platform vir die samestelling van woordeboeke.
Dit is belangrilk vir die Gaboenese bevolking om op ’n gevestigde leksikografie-tradisie staat te maak om hulle inheemse tale te bewaar en te bevorder. Die invoering van woordeboeke in die onderwys kan dit verseker. Die woordeboeke moet saamgestel word in die Gaboenese tale vir die Gaboenese leerlinge wat daardie tale leer. Aangesien elke kultuur voorkeur gee aan die ontwikkeling van woordeboeke wat die uniekheid van die spesifieke taal weerspieël, moet woordeboeke vir die Gaboenese tale na aanleiding van die Gaboenese situasie saamgestel word.
In hierdie proefskrif word ’n model voorgestel vir ’n tweetalige skoolwoordeboek vir Yipunu, een van die Gaboenese tale, en Frans. Die doel is om ’n model daar te stel wat op metaleksikografiese beginsels gebaseer is en op die Gaboenese konteks van toepassing is. Die Franse deel van die woordeboek is nie aktief in hierdie model nie. Die raamstruktuur wat vir die samestelling van so ’n model vereis word, bevat ‘n voor en ’n agtertekste-afdeling en ’n sentrale lys. Alhoewel hierdie woordeboek twee tale behandel, is Yipunu dominant. Die Franse woorde verskyn slegs as vertaalekwivalente. Ter wille van die teikengebruiker beskryf die model ook die inhoud van ’n polifunksionele, eenrigting tweetalige Yipunu-Franse woordeboek vir diegene wat Yipunu leer.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ASG: Alphabet Scientifique des Langues du Gabon
FISDSA: The Francolin Illustrated School Dictionary for Southern Africa FY-YF: Dictionnaire Français Yipounou/ Yipounou Français
GPLP: Grammaire Pounoue et Lexique Pounou
LDOCE: Longmann Dictionary of Contemporary English OALD: The Oxford Advanced Leraners’ Dictionary OJD: The Oxford Junior Dictionary
OLG: Orthographe des Langues Gabonaises OPSD: The Oxford Pocket School Dictionary YFSD: Yipunu French School Dictionary
AKNOWLEDGMENTS
The road to achieving this notorious task would have not been possible without the support and the love of my friends and family. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to:
Prof R. H. Gouws for his dedication and his constant challenging advice. It has been a great pleasure to work under your supervision;
You mother, who always encourage me. You went the extra mile for me to be where I am today;
Nathalie and Richard, you guys have been an inspiration for me;
Naylor, although oceans have kept us apart, your love and support helped me to stay focused in my dark moments;
Blanche, thank you for being a sister; My family in Gabon;
All my friends and the new family that I came to know here; May you all find here what words will have difficulties to express.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary 3 Opsoming 4 List of abbreviations 5 Acknowledgements 6 Table of contents 7 General introduction 13
Part One: Dictionaries and the Tradition of Dictionaries 16
Chapter 1: Different types of dictionaries 17
1. Introduction 17
2. Encyclopedia versus Dictionary 17
3. Linguistic dictionaries 18
4. Monolingual dictionaries versus Bilingual dictionaries 20
4.1. Monolingual and bilingual reference works in Gabon 22
5. Conclusion 27
Part Two: Dictionaries and the linguistic environment of Gabon 28
Chapter 1: The linguistic situation in Gabon 29
1. Introduction 29
2. Bilingualism and multicultural environment 29
3. Individual bilingualism 32
4. Bilingual children in Gabon 36
4. 1. The acquisition process 38
4. 2. The linguistic environment 40
5. Conclusion 42
Chapter 2: Bilingual dictionaries in a multilingual environment 44
1. Introduction 44
2. 1. The need for a school dictionary involving Gabonese languages 46
3. Bilingual dictionaries in Gabon 48
3. 1. Categorisation in bilingual dictionaries 49
3. 2. Mono- versus bidirectional bilingual dictionaries 52
4. Conclusion 53
Part Three: Dictionaries in the education system 55
Chapter 1: Language Teaching; the case of the Gabonese languages 56
1. Introduction 56
2. Pedagogy and methodology of Gabonese Language Teaching 56
2. 1. The pedagogy 56
2. 2. The material used 57
2. 3. Remarks 65
2. 4. The teaching 66
2. 4. 1. The lower classes: 6ème and 5ème 69
2. 4. 2. The higher classes: 4ème and 3ème 70
2. 5. The pupils 71
3. Conclusion 73
Chapter 2: School dictionaries 74
1. Introduction 74
2. Aspects of a school dictionary 74
3. The Francolin Illustrated School Dictionary for Sourthern Africa (FISDSA) 76
4. The Oxford Junior Dictionary (OJD) 82
5. The Oxford Pocket School Dictionary (OPSD) 85
6. Discussion 89
6. 1. Advantages of the method used by these dictionaries 89
6. 1. 1. The FISDSA 89
6. 1. 2. The OJD 90
6. 2. 1. The FISDSA 91
6. 2. 1. 1. General aspects 91
6. 2. 1. 2. The cross-referencing system 94
6. 2. 1. 3. The exercices 95
6. 2. 2. The OJD 96
6. 2. 3. Shortcomings on pronounciation; the OPSD and the FISDSA 97
7. Conclusion 100
Chapter 3: The planning phase of a dictionary project 101
1. Introduction 101
2. The lexicographic process 101
2. 1. The organisation plan 104
2. 2. The genuine purpose of a dictionary 104
2. 3. The dictionary conceptualisation plan 105
2. 3. 1. The general preparation phase 106
2. 3. 2. The material acquisition phase 108
2. 3. 3. The material preparation phase 108
2. 3. 4. The material processing phase 108
2. 3. 5. The publishing preparation phase 109
3. Why planning and what is a planning phase? 109
4. The planning phase of the model of a Yipunu-French school dictionary 111
4. 1. The genuine purpose 111
4. 2. The general preparation phase 112
4. 3. The material acquisition phase 113
5. Conclusion 115
Part Four: The Yipunu French school Dictionary 116
Chapter 1: General aspects of the intended dictionary 117
1. Introduction 117
2. 1. Why a hybrid genre? 118
3. The frame structure of a dictionary 121
3. 1. The frame structure in a bilingual dictionary context 122
3. 2. The outer texts in the frame structure 125
3. 2. 1. Functionality of outer texts 126
3. 2. 2. The outer texts in the compilation process 128
3. 2. 2. 1. The dictionary guide 129
3. 2. 2. 2. The mini-grammar 130
4. Outer texts of the proposed model (YFSD) 132
5. Examples of data for inclusion in the front and back matter of the YFSD 133
5. 1. The front matter 133
5. 1. 1. The suprasegmental level 133
5. 1. 2. Short and long vowels 134
5. 1. 3. Examples of data to be included in the front matter 135
5. 2. The back matter 141
5. 2. 1. The equivalent register 141
5. 2. 2. Proverbs 141
5. 2. 3. Other data to be included 142
6. Conclusion 146
Chapter 2: Macrostructural elements of the envisaged Yipunu French School dictionary (YFSD) 148
1. Introduction 148
2. Metalexicographical principles for a macrostructure 148
2. 1. The data distribution structure 148
2. 2. The macrostructure 150
2. 2. 1. The lemma candidates 151
2. 2. 1. 1. The role of a corpus in the choice of lemma candidates 152
2. 2. 2. The ordering of the lemmata 153
2. 2. 3. Homonyms and homographs 155
3. The lemmatisation process 157
3. 1. Main lemmata 157
3. 1. 1. Word-based approach 158
3. 1. 2. Lexical based approach 160
3. 2. Lemmatisation of sublexical lexical items 162
3. 3. Lemmatisation of multiword lexical items 163
4. The sublemmatisation process 166
4. 1. Ordering of sublemmata 166
4. 2. Complex words 167
4. 3. Idioms 169
5. A macrostructure for the YFSD 172
5. 1. General aspects 172
5. 2. Challenges 174
5. 3. The macrostructure 175
5. 3. 1. Criteria for inclusion 177
5. 3. 2. Dialectal and regional varieties 179
6. Conclusion 182
Chapter 3: Microstructural elements for the envisaged bilingual Yipunu French School Dictionary (YFSD) 184
1. Introduction 184
2. General aspects 184
2. 1. Different types of microstructures 185
2. 2. The data to be included 189
3. The micro-architechture 190
4. The access structure 191
5. The mediostructure 193
6. The microstructure of the YFSD 196
6. 1. 1. French spoken in Gabon 199
6. 1. 1. 1. Sub-division of senses 200
6. 1. 1. 2. Semantic divergence and lexical divergence 202
6. 1. 1. 2. 1. Semantic divergence 202
6. 1. 1. 2. 2. Lexcial divergence 203
6. 1. 2. The ordering of the polysemous senses 209
6. 1. 2. 1. The use of a corpus in the ordering process 211
6. 2. Collocations 212 6. 3. Illustrative examples 216 6. 4. Pictorial illustrations 219 6. 5. Labels 224 7. Conclusion 231 Recommendations 232 General conclusion 235 Bibliography 238 Appendix 251
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The aim of the present dissertation is to design a model for a bilingual school dictionary with Yipunu and French as language pair. The model should be designed in such a way that it could serve as basis for the compilation of a school dictionary going along with the
Rapidolangue series of schoolbooks in order to enhance the learning process of five of
the most frequently spoken Gabonese languages, introduced in the curriculum of Lycée and Collège of Libreville. The teaching of those languages has been introduced as a project directed by the Raponda Walker Foundation in collaboration with the Education Department. In Gabon, being a multilingual country (even if not officially), there is a need to promote and develop the local languages other than French, which is the only official language and the only medium of instruction. The linguistic situation that prevails in Gabon leads to a situation where a general dictionary cannot satisfy the needs of the young pupils of Lycées and Collèges.
Dictionaries have always served a pedagogical and a didactic purpose. They constitute a way of the standardisation of a language. They have been used for various purposes like language teaching and language restoring, thus providing explanations and information on words to the users. In their primary aim, dictionaries were compiled for practical purposes. They have been developed not as theoretical instruments but as practical tools. People needed support to help with translation concerning foreign languages. Dictionaries were also there to respond to a need of practical communication between communities with different linguistic cultures and backgrounds. The existence of lexicographic works like dictionaries is also due to a need of creating an interactive understanding between languages. This understanding prevails among languages from different linguistic communities, or among dialectal varieties from the same language and from the same community. In this regard, dictionaries develop along with the evolution of languages. This is reflected in the history of dictionary making, and still occurs in modern lexicography where one can see a theoretical-based growth.
Broadly speaking, the use of dictionaries has not actually changed much over time. They are still used as reference books by users who need some help with meaning, definitions, or translation to name a few. In that sense, dictionaries and schools are related, so are lexicographers and teachers. Together they play an important role in education by providing a better way for the pupils to adjust themselves to the society in which they live because they deal with normative language. The schoolbooks compiled during the process of the Raponda Walker Foundation project are there to present the young Gabonese generation with another aspect of the language of their parents.
Because Gabon is a multilingual country with a strong oral tradition, it is very important to develop and enforce the speech level in the classroom and in the environment of the pupils by providing adequate material to the teachers. Those materials may serve for either native or non-native speakers. Although all the studies in the field of language go along with a communication stage, when working on a school dictionary, the lexicographer should respond to the need of the intended target users of his/her dictionary, and at the same time, give the best view of the language he/she describes. He/she treats in the dictionary the standard variety of the language used by the users but also treats the daily language of the community. The pupils live in the same environment as adults. Yet, they may need more instruction, more information on the environment of the language described in a dictionary.
The present dissertation should serve as a theoretical basis to help in the process of the compilation of a dictionary such as the Yipunu French School Dictionary (YFSD) by providing a sound theoretically based lexicographic process, which includes assistance regarding planning, compilation of the corpus, compilation of the dictionary and issues of the consultation process. The needs of the intended target users cover text production as well as to communicate properly in the language of their parents. This however, is an element that allows the model of the YFSD to be a hybrid genre. The hybridness should help the lexicographer in providing a bridge that could narow the gap between the oral form of Yipunu and its written counter part. In order to do so, the model will focus on providing data such as translation equivalents, alphabet, orthography, pronunciation etc.
The model will be designed utilising the theory of H.E. Wiegand in combination with insights from the work of Tarp and Bergenholtz with regard to dictionary functions. As a theory is not a fixed and rigid thing, the two theories presented in this dissertation have been applied and adapted to the Gabonese context in order to present a model suitable for the intended target user group. Because the model should be a response to the needs of the Gabonese pupils, it was necessary to identify those needs during the course of the work. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, investigation on the language situation in Gabon, on the lexicographic situation of Gabon, on the education system as well as on the language policy in education was conducted in order to apply the above theories in devising a model that could lead to the compilation of a dictionary such as the YFSD.
In order to accomplish the task of the dissertation, the description of the model will be covered in four principal sections. The first section presents a brief view of dictionaries and dictionary typology. The second section gives a brief presentation of the linguistic situation in Gabon, setting a platform for the particularity of a dictionary suitable for such linguistic environment. The third section gives a view of the education system by presenting aspects of language teaching, the Gabonese classroom environment as well as three school dictionaries used in the South African context. The fourth section presents the design of the frame structure of the YFSD as it could be compiled. The emphasis of this section is on the outer texts section, the macrostructure and the microstructure.
PART ONE: DICTIONARIES AND THE
TRADITION OF DICTIONARIES
CHAPTER ONE: DIFFERENT TYPES OF DICTIONARIES 1. Introduction
General dictionaries provide a scientific way to respond to the needs of the users who are dealing with practical questions in their daily communication. Thus, they are made for a “general public” because they are describing the language of the speech communities and in a certain way, they constitute a mirror of the culture of a speech community. Their aim is to satisfy all the communities at the same time by providing answers to the users. In reality things seem different. One dictionary cannot give all the data needed by a community because there are different users in a linguistic community. The “general public” can be divided into small groups according to e.g. the socio-cultural level, the gender category, and the age. Dictionaries have to integrate themselves into those small groups by reflecting the language they speak. Because of the division of the so-called “general public”, dictionaries are covering several topics and they are divided into branches and types. The classification of a dictionary goes along with its function(s), its size, its format and the data categories it provides. In his book Manual of Lexicography Zgusta (1971) proposes a classification of dictionaries, which became a reference and a starting point for the theory of lexicography. He distinguishes various types of dictionaries divided into two major dichotomies. There is a distinction between “Encyclopaedia” and “Linguistic Dictionaries”, and between “Monolingual dictionaries” and “Bilingual Dictionaries”.
2. Encyclopaedia versus Linguistic dictionaries
Zgusta and modern-day lexicographers were not the first to introduce the distinction between encyclopaedia and dictionaries. This distinction started in the European Middle Ages with two different types of word lists. A well-established distinction was made between the Glossaire de voix latine and the Sommes. Catholic students to interpret and understand the ancient Holy Scriptures used the Glossaire de voix latine. The Sommes
was a collection of a range of information of what the people of that time had inherited from their past. An example of this kind of book is the Etymologies of Saint Isidore de Séville (Gross 1989).
Although they both deal with words, a dictionary and an encyclopaedia do not have the same focus. They differ in various points. This discussion focuses on some of the relevant differences that justify such a distinction1. The major difference consists in the selection
and treatment of their lemmata. An encyclopaedia deals with words that belong to what Martinet (1969:117) calls open paradigms. They include lemmata representing e.g. names of celebrities and of places, maps, pictures and photos. They do not typically provide data on words like verbs, conjunctions, locutions, prepositions and adverbs. On the other hand, dictionaries deal with the linguistic sign, so they provide a linguistic treatment of the word and they do not give as much attention to the referent. Encyclopaedias do not reflect the spoken language of the community, but the rare words, the not common words of the society. In their selection and treatment they focus primarily on extralinguistic features.
3. Linguistic dictionaries
Following the distinction between encyclopaedias and dictionaries, there is another distinction, indicating the difference between monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. This distinction applies only when one deals with linguistic dictionaries. Encyclopaedias are generally monolingual. And within the category of linguistic dictionaries there are also subdivisions. Those subdivisions are made according to the size of the dictionary, but most of all according to the content, the treatment and according to the target user at whom the dictionary is directed. There are “standard dictionaries”, “comprehensive
1 The difference between dictionary and encyclopaedia constitutes a great debate in the science of
language. Some authors think that encyclopaedias and dictionaries are the same and there is no need to make such a distinction.
dictionaries”, “pedagogical dictionaries”, “historical dictionaries”, “etymological dictionaries”, “LSP dictionaries”. All of them are either part of what is called synchronic dictionaries, e.g. standard and comprehensive dictionaries, or part of the diachronic dictionaries like the etymological ones.
Berg, quoted by Zgusta (1971: 197), defines the word “dictionary” as a systematically arranged list of socialised linguistic forms compiled from speech-habits of a given speech-community and commented on by the author in such a way that the qualified reader understands the meaning [...] of each separate form, and is informed of the relevant facts in its community. Although I agree with such a definition of the term I also want to add that the user of a dictionary although he/she is automatically qualified to use a particular dictionary because he/she fits into the user profile of that dictionary, he/she may not necessarily be “experienced”. Still it remains a fact that the user comes to the dictionary to find a solution to a problem or answers to some questions. The user of a dictionary may not know how to use a dictionary but expects to find a solution in the dictionary. Therefore linguistic dictionaries do provide information on both instruction and cultural level.
One of the principal aims of the dictionary is to be consulted. Consequently, because of the changing needs of the users, many changes occurred during the last decade in lexicography. As a result, dictionaries are crossing barriers in the sense that, nowadays, there is not always a strict border between types of dictionaries. Some standard desk dictionaries seem to contain in their central list treatment such as that offered in comprehensive dictionaries, the treatment in etymological dictionaries also changed and they often contain more synchronic descriptions. One of the major examples of overlapping is the field of pedagogical dictionaries, especially school dictionaries, which use more and more extralinguistic information in the treatment of their lemmata to satisfy their type of users (particularly the dictionaries which deal with children on the level of primary school).
4. Monolingual dictionaries versus bilingual dictionariesAlthough the distinction
between monolingual and bilingual started in the early phases of practical lexicography, it is usually known that bilingual dictionaries preceded the monolingual ones. In the past, people were using glossaries or word lists that essentially contained translation equivalents for foreign language words. From 3000 BC up to the Middle Ages in western countries, there were no or at least very few monolingual dictionaries. Boisson, referred to by Béjoint (2000:92), shows that some countries were having along with their oral records, both monolingual and/or bilingual traditional village recitations and word lists. Those word lists sometimes contained what he calls sorts of definitions, half poetry and half lexicography. The early monolingual dictionaries did not differ from the bilingual ones in terms of their function. They were also instruments for self-teaching. Both were used by people who wanted to know how to speak and write properly (to get to the high level of the language, the so called “standard language”). The difference between the two types was in terms of the number of the words included in the central list. Bilingual dictionaries were bigger than monolingual dictionaries (Béjoint 2000, Landau 2000). At the turn of the eighteenth century, that fact also changed. Lexicographers of that period felt the need to record and describe the “standard language” as a whole in order to exclude purely linguistic description aimed at prescribing the language. The community needed more grammar, and by extension, more dictionaries. Since then, in terms of volume, monolingual and bilingual dictionaries were equal. Whether the lexicographer has to describe the whole language of a community or the language of a particular group of that community, there are small and big monolingual dictionaries as much as there are small and big bilingual dictionaries.
Another point is that the pedagogical function of the dictionary at this period of time was still strong. In fact, teaching the “true language” was also one of the reasons for the expansion of monolingual dictionaries. In a similar way the need to know more about the linguistic system of a foreign language enhanced the publication and the quality of bilingual dictionaries. In that regard, Béjoint (2000:94) says that from a humble reference book for occasional use, the dictionary then became the repository of the language as a whole, a thesaurus recording language in a state that was not amenable to change. As a
result of describing the whole language in the central list of the dictionaries, the aim and the structure of dictionaries changed. The lexicographer no longer treated only “hard words” but he/she also included “simple words”. In the treatment of lexical items, provision was made to deal with polysemous senses and synonyms, paraphrases of meaning, definitions, collocations, regional terms, dialectal varieties, etc. The macrostructure as well as the microstructure of the dictionary developed into formal dictionary components and the typology of dictionaries became more established. This has led to more emphasis on the identification and establishment of specific typological categories. This has also helped the science of lexicography to become a well-established discipline with a sound theoretical basis.
The final distinction between monolingual and bilingual dictionaries regards the language(s) treated in the dictionary. As they have been named, monolingual dictionaries deal with only one language. For that reason and depending on the sub-type, it is preferable to compile them only if the language described is standardised. The language need to have a well established orthography, and a written form which is recognised by the community. Dictionaries serve as instruments in the development of a language, but their purpose is also to help in the process of the standardisation of languages. That is why most of the languages of the western countries have a range of monolingual dictionaries, with desk dictionaries and learner’s dictionaries being the most popular. For most of the countries in Africa, things are different. It appears that most of the dictionaries in those countries are mainly bilingual dictionaries. The major explanation for that situation is the linguistic situation that prevails in those countries. Most of them have more than ten languages to cope with, and yet the linguistic communities received as inheritance the language of colonialisation. In some cases like in Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the DRC there are different literatures written in the local languages. Some of those local languages even manage to be official languages, and languages of the institutions. Some others are just languages that are spoken at home, or frequently used for research but not in the daily life like in the western countries with languages such as English, French and German. This part of Africa is a great platform for
the expansion of lexicography in general, particularly for the production of monolingual dictionaries. Bilingual lexicography still has a long way to go.
In conclusion, I can say that an important distinction that still applies to dictionary typology nowadays is that between monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It appears to be the most relevant one because all dictionaries, no matter the category, the size and whether they are synchronic or diachronic, are either monolingual or bilingual. During the last century, the emergence of multilingual dictionaries even absorbed the bilingual ones. Different functions in both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries also play an important role.
4.1. Monolingual and bilingual reference works in Gabon
In Gabon, the prevailing linguistic situation has seen the publication of many works in the field of bilingual dictionaries. The data used for those works was often taken from oral sources. Monolingual lexicography is still not explored in a comprehensive way. Missionaries have done some work. They concentrated on the religious and educational aspects and mainly translated French and English Bibles into some local languages such as Fan, Yipunu, Yinzebi, Getsogho, Omyene, Lembaama, Ghisir, etc., and they also produced some grammar and schoolbooks. Most of the people involved on a lexicographic level in Gabon were working on translation. The purpose was to provide a medium of communication between the local population and the missionaries or the explorers who lived in Gabon during that period.
Bilingual dictionaries entered Gabon in the 1600s (Mihindou 2001). Since then, they have been expanded. Monolingual dictionaries still have to undergo this process. The result of French being the only official language, amongst the sixty-two classified Gabonese languages, is that all the Gabonese languages developed along with French. Very little research in Gabon focuses on monolingual aspects of the local languages. It has always been a translation between French and the local languages. No exception was
made, even when it comes to grammar and schoolbooks, which are supposed to be monolingual works. One must notice that schoolbooks and grammars deal with mother-tongue speakers because their function is to help the children in their written knowledge of the language they speak. That is why, from a pedagogical point of view, school dictionaries and other lexicographical work directed at scholars and the standard language are usually done in the mother-tongue of the users. There is not such a procedure as source language and/or target language like in bilingual works. Every
treatment is done in the described language, which is also the metalanguage.
However, the schoolbooks, and grammars compiled in Gabon were done according to a pattern resembling that of a translation dictionary. They all comprise two main sections. In the second section, all the explanations about the grammar, the pronunciation, and the structure of the language are given in French. In the first one, the examples and the lexical items are in the Gabonese languages. Those works essentially give the translation of the sentence or the lexical items in the local language. They do not pay attention to definitions, or explanation about the structure of that language, cf. the following examples taken from a series of schoolbooks edited by the Fondation Raponda Walker, one of the major Gabonese publishing houses.
Ex 1
Première leçon: Salutation/Greetings
Bonjour!
Hello! Good morning!
Fang mbolo! Inzebi wè ma sogha!
Lembaama (mbolo) wè minyuasagha! Omyènè mbolo!
Yipunu Matin: maranbuga (mbolué)! Midi: wi moyi! Soir: mbolué! (réponse) bonjour! Good morning! F Mm mbolo! I è na wè! L è na wè! O ae mbolo!
Y Ninë na ndjenu! (mbolo) (inë) Bonjour (plusieurs personnes)
Good morning!
* Mbolo ani! mbolo! mbolo! * Be le ma sogha! * Mboloani! * Mboluanué! Ex 2 SON ET ORTHOGRAPHE A) Les voyelles:
a se prononce comme dans “pas”
ä ou â est une voyelle prolongée fréquente dans les langues bantoues. Elle
s’écrit aa: son prolongé. Vient d’Afrique de l’Ouest comme dans “maam”
grands parents en wolof, okaasi, femme en lembaama.
è se prononce comme dans ‘très”
i se prononce comme dans “si” - ii est un son prolongé u se prononce comme dans “vous”
ü se prononce comme dans “tube”
B) les emi-voyelles:
ôn, ân sons nasalisés correspondant à «on-an » en français comme dans
«bon» ou «enfant».
w se prononce comme dans “oui” ou l’anglais “we” y se prononce comme dans “pied” ou l’anglais “yes”
C) les consonnes: Les consonnes b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, s, t, z, se prononcent à peu près
comme en français. Notez que:
mb, mp, nd, ng gardent leur valeur de consonnes et s’articulent nettement. z représente un son intermédaire entre le z de “zéro” et le j de “jeu”, dans la
plupart des cas. D) les consonnes combinées:
Leur prononciation s’apprend par l’usage. Signalons cependant quelques cas.
dy et dj se rapprochent du son “dion”, mais varient suivant la langue.
Quelque fois ils se rapprochent de dz
gh se rapproche de la jota espagnole ou du ch allemand «ach» ng (généralement en fin de mot) son nasalisé qui se rapproche
ny ou gn se rapproche du son gn dans “agneau”. Exemple:
«nyama», «la viande» en yipunu (prononcer gnama)
The schoolbook is compiled using the French structure with no grammatical and semantic notions of the five Bantu languages treated in the schoolbook. The reason given by the authors of that schoolbook is that they did not want to repulse the pupils with grammar that could be “too complex” for them. But the French structure drastically differs from the structure of the five Gabonese languages found in the Rapidolangue series. Their choice does not represent a grammar that normally goes according to those types of languages. The real part of speech, the tonal suprasegment, the different forms of the lexical item, the morphology and data regarding all the structures are not presented. And yet, the format used for the book is suitable for foreign people who want to learn one of the Gabonese languages although the treatment is restricted to the pronunciation and the translation of the lexical item.
The fact that Gabonese languages do not have a written tradition makes the situation even more difficult to apprehend. Most of the patterns of phonetics are taken from the French sounds. That is not quite right because some sounds cannot be found in the French inventory. For example a complex sound like nasal consonants agglutinate to non-nasal consonants, or sequences of consonants are not often found in French while they are common in Gabonese languages.
Ex 3
In most of the Gabonese languages there are complex consonants like: mpang [mpang ] tsand [tsand ] mvul [mvul ] udjab [ud ab ] ntchentu [ntƒƒƒƒentu] nda [nda] ndziami [ndziami]
tchikwang [tƒƒƒƒìkwang ]
While none of the above sequence of consonants exist in French. jambon [ ãbõ] pic-nique [piknik] chambre [ƒƒƒƒãbr] garder [garde] charmer [ƒƒƒƒarme] But we find: plombier [plõbjie] premier[pr mjie] fleur [flœr] brouette [bru t]
The sequence vowel-nasal (VN) in Gabonese languages does not constitute one sound like in French. For French, the vowels a o and u for example followed by one of the
nasals m or n are one sound [ã], [õ] and [œ]. In the Gabonese languages these vowels
can, in most of the cases, take the nasal coloration of the consonants. In some others, the vowel may be one sound with the nasal consonants like in French.
If the words are broken into syllables, we will have something like:
Ex 4
Yipunu Civili French
mpa-ng (mpang) tchi-kwa-ng (tchikwang )en-fant (enfant)
tsa-nd (tsand) li-ndo-mb (lindomb ) sau-mon (saumon) u-ro-nd (urond) nko-mb (nkomb ) gar-çon (grarçon)
5. Conclusion
In modern day lexicography like in the past periods, dictionaries were compiled to respond to both didactive and communicative purposes. The classification that resulted from the practice of lexicography gave birth to dictionaries that are compiled according to the needs of the intended target users, and respond to those needs. Although metalexicographers drew the lines between the different types of dictionaries, the overlapping is increasing, also depending on the needs of the target users. Therefore, the remaining major distinctions are: 1) the disctinction between dictionaries and encyclopedias because of the lexicographic treatment they offer; and 2) the disctinction between monolingual and bilingual dictionaries because all types of linguistic dictionaries can either be monolingual or bilingual. In that sense, although the reference works done in Gabon are all bilingual, they could present a good data base and a starting point for monolingual lexicographical work. The Rapidolangue series of schoolbooks will thus constitute a platform for the compilation of a school dictionary that could help in the establishment of dictionaries involving Gabonese languages in the education system. I believe that the function of this type of lexicographical work could help in producing a norm for the local languages.
PART TWO: DICTIONARIES AND THE
LINGUISTIC ENVIRONMENT OF GABON
CHAPTER ONE: THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN GABON
1. Introduction
Natural linguistic diversity is more prevalent in most of the black African countries and for them, bilingualism is a normal requirement for the daily communication. People speak the language of “home”, academic language and sometimes the language of the speech community of the environment they live in. A Yipunu mother-tongue speaker can then either speak Yipunu and French, or Yipunu and the dominant language of the province in which he/she lives. The common definition of being bilingual or monolingual refers to the number of languages a person speaks. A bilingual person will speak two languages and the monolingual person only one. It is ideally required from the bilingual that he/she speaks both languages equally well. That definition will then exclude most of the people in African countries who speak more than one language (sometimes more than three), and yet, even if a person speaks two languages, there will always be one, which will be the dominant one. But bilingualism or multilingualism is a complex concept with a lot of implications. Giving a right definition for that concept is a hard task, but not impossible if one takes into account the situation and its function. I believe that those two entities will determine the type of bilingualism that goes according to specific societies and individuals. An opposing group of definitions is based on the idea of language use, maintaining that bilingualism starts at the point where a speaker can first produce complete meaningful utterances in both languages (Johnson & Johnson, 1998:29).
2. Bilingualism and a multicultural environment
Some how, the complexity of defining the concept of bilingualism is due to the fact that one must decide on how much of the second language (L2) it takes to be a bilingual because there certainly exists a difference between a person who can master a L2 and the
ability of using it (sometimes the person struggles in the oral form while the written form is well mastered, and vice-versa). Thus, one should use the term “bilingualism” as a general word and talk about degrees or levels of bilingualism because most of the second language (L2) users control a different range of registers and styles in the two languages. For that reason a person can have a bilingual knowledge while being a monolingual. And yet, when someone uses more than one language, he/she has to internalise the L2 or the third language (L3) in such a way that he/she can use it for different functions and at different levels. That person needs to know more than asking his/her way, a cup of tea, bread or saying greetings. Furthermore, in the daily life, bilingualism is more restrictive. When a person is required to be a bilingual at work or whatever situation it may be, he/she is often expected to know the L2 just good enough to be able to produce what is required of him/her. Whether the person is fluent or not in the language in both written and oral form does not bother as long as he/she can satisfy the need of the situation. And more often, the use of the L2 will be restricted to translation and oral conversation, while the written form is neglected. In that sense, Johnson & Johnson (1998) take one example by saying that advertisements for bilingual secretaries seems to require an ability to use the second language for professional purposes alone; those for bilingual teachers often require the ability to reach non-English-speaking children rather than the knowledge of a language (Johnson &Johnson, 1998:29).
Another way to look at bilingualism is the fact that languages change with the linguistic environment in which they are spoken. Therefore, bilingualism is not a sign of any particular achievements, a bilingual person is not two monolinguals in one person, and as Hoffmann (1991:3) says, bilingualism arises as a result of contact. Bilingualism and/or multilingualism are not static states. The same rules are applied to monolinguals. During the last decades, some countries that were monolingual became bilingual or even multilingual countries. Canada, Finland, Belgium can be mentioned as examples of that process. The population of black African countries like Gabon mostly live in a multilingual environment, but those countries do not have an official status of being bilingual or multilingual countries. Even if there are several official languages, the one most frequently spoken will be the one of the ex metropolis. For those countries, being
bilingual or multilingual is just a fact and not a statement. They cannot be seen as multilingual states like Canada for example. An exception can be made with Rwanda that started a multilingual policy since the end of the 90s due to historical reasons2.
In the case of Gabon however, the majority of the population speaks local languages. French still has a privileged position because it is the language of institution and medium of instruction in most cases. As a result, the education system appears to be a great platform to promote local languages even if they are unofficially used as medium of instruction in certain rural areas. In that regard, educational matters can affect, and they often do, the development and maintenance of bilingualism or monolingualism on both the individual and societal level. Hoffmann (1991:8) emphasises that point when saying that it has been attested, for instance, that unless the education system takes proper account of the special needs of the children of minority groups, they will not become fully functional in the minority and majority codes. On the other hand, a minority language that finds its way into the school curriculum will enjoy enhanced prestige and this can, in term, positively affect public attitude towards the language concerned and its speakers, who may find it easier to maintain.
The case is not the same in Gabon because it is the majority who speaks local languages. Nevertheless, those languages can be considered as minority languages because of the privileged situation of French (French is written, read and spoken while the local languages are only spoken and few people can read or write them). The education system in this case appears to be a good place to promote those languages and elevate them to an official level. The example of South Africa that introduced nine official languages, including the Bantu languages, illustrates the fact that Gabonese languages can also become official languages. For the case of Gabon, the procedure will be different because of the number of languages (62). Those languages are according to Kwenzi-Mikala (1988) divided into ten units. The strongest language of each unit can be elevated to an official language like French. The Gabonese government is willing to endeavour that
2 After the genocide and the civil wars, most of the Rwandese people who grew up in Uganda came back
speaking English. Today, Rwanda is a multilingual country with English, French and Kinearwanda used in both institutions and as medium of education.
procedure. For this cause, it has introduced the five most frequently spoken languages into the educational system. Pupils from the “premier cycle” of Lycées and Collèges do have one of the five languages, Fang, Yipunu, Omyene, Lembaama and Yinzebi, as subject.
From all this it follows that a better definition of bilingualism could be given according to the function of bilingualism. That leads us to different degrees of bilingualism. Cook, as mentioned by Johnson &Johnson (1998:30), proposes a new terminology, which can put all the levels of bilingualism under the same cap. He chooses to replace the term bilingualism by “multi-competence”. Thus a bilingual becomes a “multi-competent” person, no matter the level of the written mastering or the oral mastering of the language. That terminology fits well in with the statement I previously made that one must speak about a monolingual person with a bilingual knowledge.
3. Individual bilingualism
Although Gabon is not an official bilingual (or multilingual) country, there are many individuals who speak more than one language. For that reason, it is crucial to distinguish societal bilingualism from individual bilingualism. To go along with the situation that prevails in Gabon I choose not to speak in detail about societal bilingualism. Whether or not a country is officially bilingual has little to do with whether an individual can speak one, two or three languages, or whether that country has many multi-competent individuals.
Bilingualism is a subject that has been covered by several authors in the field of language acquisition, as well as in the field of linguistics and lexicography. I only chose to present definitions that are relevant for the present research project.
• In the definition given by Christopherson (1948:4), the competence of the bilingual is more realistic. He says that the bilingual is a person who knows two
languages with approximately the same degree of perfection as unilingual speakers of those languages.
• A more realistic definition would be the one given by Weinreich (1968:1). It says that the practice of alternately using two languages will be called bilingualism
and the person involved, bilingual. This definition can be applied to the analysis I
make of the Gabonese children because it touches the point of the context and the function of bilingualism.
•
• For Oestreicher (1974:9), bilingualism is a complete mastery of two different
languages without interference. That definition implies that the person does not
confuse the languages, but it is restricted to two languages only while nowadays, it is possible to meet individuals with the ability to speak not only two languages, but also three or more. It is somehow an ideal definition because people who can completely master two languages are very rare due to the dynamics of the language and the linguistic changes. Because in a bilingual context there is interference between the different languages, two linguistic systems cannot be equally rich. The richer will prevail over the less rich in the language of a multi-competent person.
For Makey quoted by Hofmann (1991: 16), if we are to study the phenomenon of bilingualism we are forced to consider it as something entirely relative. He also adds that we should include the use not only of two languages but also of any number of languages. I shall therefore consider bilingualism as the alternative use of two or more languages by the same person because it may sometimes be difficult to draw a strict border between individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism. The age of
bilingualism at the time of the acquisition may result in considerable differences as suggested by the terms “early” and “late” bilingualism. There are some factors that can be taken into account to determine or describe someone or a community as bilingual or not. The first one will be the age, the second one the context of the acquisition, the third one the function of the acquisition of the language. Factor number 2 will provide the distinction between a child who learns the language from his parents, therefore who learns in a more natural environment (primary or natural bilingualism), from a child that has to learn, or who is put into contact with another language later on in a formal way like at school for example (late bilingualism). This category also includes adults who learn a foreign language and during the learning process the person becomes bilingual. This is different from the situation of a natural bilingualism where the child is already put in a bilingual environment. This secondary bilingualism must be distinguished from “school bilingualism” in which a person does not have the opportunity to practice and even speak or read and write the second language he/she learnt. The child born in a bilingual environment has the possibility of reading, writing and/or speaking the language, while in the case of school bilingualism, the knowledge of the second language stays in the classroom and is not put in the daily communication (Hoffmann 1991).
As already mentioned, fully bilingual people very seldom exist. It has frequently appeared that in a bilingual situation, one of the two languages is dominant and well known while the other one is weak with a lack of knowledge of the linguistic system. Most of the time, the dominant language is the first one, but it is not always the case. In some rare cases, one can find the dominant language being the second or the third one. This happens in the process of bilingualism when the person mastered the second language and ended up with a better knowledge and use of the second language, compared to that of the first language. This situation is mainly seen in the case of immigrant people who decided to adopt the language of their new countries. Both categories of people are found in Gabon. Some of the Gabonese have French as dominant and first language, some of them have French as dominant but second language.
On the other hand, the degree of bilingualism of an individual is often measured according to the monolingual environment in which that person lives. For example, an English person will be called bilingual if he/she is able to have a French or a Spanish conversation without having to look for his/her words, as if he/she was from that country (like in the definition of Christopherson or Weinreich) and vice-versa. In other words, one must find oneself in a monolingual situation to be able to know the degree of bilingualism of that person. Thus, languages used by a bilingual person are not, or do not need to be used in all kinds of contexts. He/she may switch from one language to the other, or only use one at the time. Because different bilingual persons function in different communication situations and display various levels of competence for each code, bilingualism is not a phenomenon of a language but rather of an individual. It is a characteristic of use. It is not a feature of code but of the message. That is why many conceivable patterns do exist when it comes to individual bilingualism. Those patterns go according to the languages spoken and the function in which they are used.
Generally the degree of bilingualism of an individual excludes the written use of language. Bilingual people are often only judged on an oral level i.e. in situations of listening and/or speaking. The ability to read or write is often neglected. In fact, a person can be bilingual without any knowledge concerning writing or reading, like in the case of Gabon and many black African countries. When individuals can only read and/or write a language without speaking it, they are not regarded as bilingual. There are degrees of bilingualism ranging from fully bilingual to being passive bilingual. The phenomenon of bilingualism is closely linked to the oral communication and that goes even for the Western countries that have a strong and well-established written tradition. If an individual in those countries is able to speak another language (lets take the case of a bilingual French-English individual), it does not matter if the person lacks some aspects of reading and writing, as long as he/she is able to speak and listen to the language, he/she is called a bilingual. The example of an African pupil who learnt one of the European languages, like French, German or English will be taken to illustrate this point. Pupils generally know how to read or write the language they learnt for several years (Gabonese pupils who had English as subject during high school). Yet, they will have
some difficulties to speak that language fluently. The common society will not talk about them as bilingual because the evidence for them lies in the speaking of the language. Thus the oral production prevails in the bilingual world, and in this case, even the individual himself does not consider himself as a bilingual.
4. Bilingual children in Gabon
Generally, the practice and alternative use of two languages will be called bilingualism, and the person involved bilingual. Hence, to be bilingual or even multilingual, a person should at least have a good knowledge of both languages and must be able to speak, read, and/or write them alternatively. This is not the case in Gabon. All the “bilingual” individuals do not have the knowledge to read and write the local languages. They may be classified in the category described by Martinet (1969) when he talks about symmetrical versus asymmetrical bilingualism. In the first case (symmetrical bilingualism), the person is supposed to have an equal mastery of both languages. He/she is fluent in them, and in a sense, stable. However, when one of the languages is less known than the other, it will be an asymmetric bilingualism. And in the situation of asymmetric bilingualism, one can distinguish:
• Passive bilingualism: The lesser known language is understood without being spoken (pupils learning English during high school in Gabon);
• Non-receptive bilingualism: It is the other way around. The language can be spoken but not fully understood (Children having one of the local languages as second language);
• Written bilingualism: The language is understood on the written level, and can be written as well, but it is not understood orally (pupils learning a foreign language at school)
• Technical bilingualism: The knowledge of the language is strictly limited to the professional needs (Foreign people who learn the language of the hosting country,
people working in specific domains and who are only familiar with the language of that domain).
In the situation of bilingual children, one can find two types of bilingualism (cf. p31). The two categories are determined by whether, in a bilingual situation, the child learns both languages simultaneously or not. In the case of Gabon, if the child learns both the languages of his/her parents and French, it is a case of “early bilingualism”. If he/she learns one of the languages before learning the other, e.g. when the medium of instruction in primary school is in Yipunu, the child will only come to know French at secondary school. It is a case of “late bilingualism”.
To learn a language, the linguistic environment is very important. It helps the learner to learn and retain quickly, and not to be confused in his/her practice. The words a person who learns a foreign language will hear most frequently will constitute the basis on which one can build his/her vocabulary (lexicon). Those words are normally the ones used in a typical conversation, in the daily life. Such words concern greetings, questions about how to find one’s way and words used when asking for help. They will have the priority because they are the words that the learner will encounter most frequently. Children are no exception. The way they learn is similar to the way of adults when learning a foreign or new language. But generally, there are two ways for them to learn a new or foreign language. The first one is through the immediate environment of the family, the linguistic context, and the second one is through reading, through the television and through school. The first way goes along with daily conversations where familiar words abound. They are the most learnt words, and they are easy to pick up by the children because the adults that live around them use them in a repetitive way. In the second way, which most of the time refers to books, the complex and academic words will be found. The two ways constitute the two registers that lead to the two acts of the linguistic activity of a community. Those acts are the production (encoding) and the understanding (decoding) of the language.
A difference must be made, in the present work, between learning a new or foreign language and acquiring a second language. The first normally refers to adults or pupils who have come into contact with a language through education or a formal medium of
instruction. Immigrants, women or men in mixed marriages, children of former colonised countries fall into that category. The second type merely concerns children of a mixed marriage, or children who come into contact with two (or more) languages in their early childhood. They do not learn the languages, but both languages are part of their language acquisition process (Hofmann 1991, Johnson &Johnson 1998). In Gabon, both categories of children are found in rural areas. Most of the children living in Libreville will fall in the first category, because the situation is such that they will come to learn either French as a second language, or one of the Gabonese languages as second language, especially in a monolingual marriage. For children in a mixed marriage, the best known situation will be learning the Gabonese language as a second language. In the rural areas, both categories of children will also be found with the difference that the local language is the dominant one while in the urban areas the dominant language will be French. Thus, Gabonese children often have to face more than two languages in their language acquisition process but most of all in their linguistic environment. They are secondary bilinguals because they come to know either French or one of the local languages later in their acquisition (cf.p30).
4. 1. The acquisition process
One must bear in mind that the acquisition or the learning process of a second language implies that the first language is well established in the linguistic competence of the speaker. For that reason, the second and first category of children seems to be similar because in both cases, we do have one dominant language and one weaker one. However a difference exists in the fact that in the first case, the child may just learn but still not be able to master the linguistic system of the learnt language, while in the second category, both languages become well established and mastered, although there will still be a dominant one.
Although it happens naturally, the learning of a second language does require certain conditions during the acquisition process. For the Gabonese children two major figures can be drawn:
• In rural areas, the child will first learn e.g. Yipunu, the language spoken at home and by the speakers around within the region. That child will come into contact with French only in primary school for some cases, and most of the time in secondary school and at university. At the early stage of the childhood, Yipunu is both first and dominant language. As soon as French comes into his/her life, Yipunu is still the first language, but will be the weaker one because of its lack of a written form.
• In the urban areas, the child either has Yipunu or French as first language. Some children were born or raised in a monolingual house. Yipunu will be the first language because it has been learned naturally, and French will be their acquired language. The child may be fluent in both languages, developing them at almost the same time. Yipunu will still be the first language but will not be the dominant one. On the other hand, some children would have learned French as first language and only come into contact with the second language occasionally, e.g. during a holiday at their grand parents. Those children are usually from mixed marriages and the language used by both parents when they talk to each other is French. In this case, two situations occur. Either French will stay the first and dominant language or one of the languages of one parent will become the dominant language.
In Gabon, like in many countries where people have to learn a second language for practical purposes such as work, school, integrating oneself in a new society or a culture, the process of learning was rarely done in a formal way. It was done more naturally and informally. In other words, it was done through the daily communication. People have to know how to speak to be able to fit into the society. This even goes for children. In that
regard I agree with Hoffmann (1991: 33-55) when she says that when a child learns to speak, he/she learns to use language as a means of expression, communication and social contact. Later on, she adds that he/she is also learning to use language as a tool for understanding and manipulating the world around him/her, i.e. he/she is learning that he/she needs to hear the language from people who surround him/her. In other words, language is an essential ingredient of a child’s socialisation process (Hofmann, 1991:34).
4. 2. The linguistic environment
The familial linguistic environment in which the children grow up is a better way for them to learn words, especially when they are still young (2-4 years old). It appears also to be the better way for the older children to learn a new or foreign language (8-15 years old). This has the advantage not to be a passive process, but an active one because there might be a rich extralinguistic context to the conversation. The speaker will often have some sensitivity to the extent of the listener’s knowledge, and the listener can ask questions (Bloom, 2000:192). The vocabulary found in the written sources is mostly like the linguistic environment in which children grow up. Nagy and Hermann, mentioned by Bloom, gave the result of a survey they conducted about how many words students who read at school can learn in a year. The response was that they will read about half million words a year and be exposed to about 10000 unknown words per year.
To the contrary, Beals (1998) finds that children are often exposed to rare words in the course of casual conversations at home, such as during meal time. That fact can explain why the linguistic context is the most frequent way for them to learn. It provides a way to learn both simple and complex words. The active function of learning a word can be defined by “hearing-questioning” to get more information from the learner’s part. Most of the time the language is learned by hearing words in the context of sentences and use, and this linguistic context is used to figure out what they mean. The simple sentences will then be the ones most commonly heard. They will often not be able to talk in complex sentences and sometimes they will only use nominal sentences and contracted forms.
In Gabon, a lot of children have to learn the language of their parents as a second language because of the high number of local languages. All of them may be fluent in the language of their parents, but as mentioned earlier, few will be able to read or write in those languages due to the privileged situation of French (French is the only official language and the language of institution). The process of the apprenticeship in those languages (like with every child or adult learning a new language) will be more directed at the semantic level than the syntactic level. They will become familiar with verbs and nouns such as modal verbs, locatives, nominal classes, nominal and verbal pronouns in linguistic context. It will not be long sentences but simple and short ones, plus short affirmation and interjections forms.
Ex 1
Yipunu
rugh!: come! djang!: eat! tsan!: sit! reelm!: stand up! vhos!: speak!
dund!: do not do that/this; do not touch that/this
ye bo’ivhik: go and bring me that chair/ bring me that chair ni wendi’ o ikol: I go to school
ni rondi unu mamb: I want some water ni beeli: I am sick/I am not well
ye bo’ dimanyi: go and bring me the iron/ go fetch the iron we ye sus bipel: do the washing up/go and wash the dishes
The group, which I chose to work with in this research project, is Gabonese children from 8 to 17 years old. That group can be divided into two sub-groups according to their first
